File photo
Developer Packy Campbell would like to make compressed natural gas available as a transport fuel in Rochester.

ROCHESTER — In the expectation that compressed natural gas (CNG) will become more widely used as a transport fuel in the coming years, plans are being explored to develop a traditional gas station convenience store at the bottom of Exit 12 at 32 Gonic Road, the former Amerigas site. The proposal, as yet to go before the Planning Board, is to incorporate into the typical development project, a CNG station.

“The property is currently owned by Unitil and we are working a purchase and sales agreement based on the current option, subject to an appraisal and agreement related to prior environmental issues with the site,” said developer Packy Campbell, who is working with “a small group of investors.”

On April 15, Campbell organized a CNG 101 presentation at Rochester City Hall provided by Clean Energy Fuels Corp., and to which city department heads were invited as well as representatives from Waste Management, a company Campbell would like to have as a future CBG customer, to help make the project viable.

The CNG presentation was given by Drew Drummond of Clean Energy, a company owned by Texan T. Boone Pickens.

The visual presentation stressed that CNG is cleaner, greener and cheaper than conventional gas and that the United States has a supply estimated to last 200 years. CNG currently sells at around $2.50 a gallon, and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by around 30 percent.

“There is significant up front infrastructure costs for the CNG station and upgrades to the gas supply line. The location on Exit 12 is ideal for CNG because it is outside of the city network on the main supply line to the city,” Campbell said. “We are hoping to get enough commitment from CNG customers in the next few months to then bring a plan before the planning board.”

Campbell estimates that to be viable, the CNG station would have to sell 30,000 gallons per month or a quarter of a million gallons annually.

Campbell said that Waste Management in Rochester goes through around 100,000 gallons of gas a month, and thus if the company was to start by converting a quarter of its fleet to CNG vehicles, as they have already done at other WM locations, the station would be well on its way to viability.

Added to this, Campbell said there is a strong financial (not to mention environmental) case for new school bus purchases to be CNG vehicles, as the additional cost would be paid back through fuel cost savings well within the vehicles’ lifetime.

Drummond said he did not recommend conversion of existing gas or diesel powered vehicles to CNG, as the expense and shorter vehicle life was likely to eliminate payback.

At present, New Hampshire has three CNG stations; two are private — for government vehicles in Concord and UNH vehicles in Durham, and a public station in Nashua. Clean Energy hopes to open another public station in Pembroke before the end of the year.

Each site has a compressor to compress the natural gas to less that one percent of its normal atmospheric pressure volume.

Asked if there were noise complaint issues with the compressors, as the stations shown in the presentation appeared to have no neighbors, Drummond said they typically hummed and created 80-85 decibels, compared to a diesel truck creating 90 decibels of noise. It is a topic that has provided discussion on a number of Internet websites.

Economic Development Director Karen Pollard, hearing that the state of Connecticut provides grants to municipal agencies to incentivize getting on board with CNG, asked if New Hampshire did likewise. She was told that it doesn’t at this time.

Campbell said, “It makes sense without government grants,” adding that is was his objective to persuade the city to change over its fleet to CNG in stages, say 10 vehicles at a time.

Campbell said that he would like to have a future meeting with department heads to discuss this approach.